Illegal deforestation — with an increase of 68% in August this year compared to the same month last year, according to the Amazon Institute of Man and Environment (Imazon) — and the fires in the Amazon, with the highest number of fires recorded from January to September since 2010, reveal an emergency scenario. The business sector, aware of the urgency of mobilization, organized, on Wednesday (21/10), the panel: “Involving the chain in the solution: Customers and Suppliers”, conceived by the FHC Foundation and the American Chamber of Commerce (Amcham). Rodrigo Santos, CEO of Bayer's Crop Science division for Latin America, and Walter Schalka, CEO of Suzano, both members of CEBDS, were present. They agree that Brazil needs to make a “new reinsertion into international geopolitics and become a sustainable power”.
“Brazil needs an environmental revolution that is used to create jobs and income,” said Walter Schalka, who explained that if the country eliminates illegal deforestation in the Amazon, which represents 97% of the total, it could generate US$10 billion per year through the carbon market.
According to Rodrigo Santos, Bayer has already been following this path, with the “decarbonization” of production processes and assistance to small producers. In partnership with Embrapa, the company is helping 400 farmers with a series of recommendations and sustainable practices in agriculture. The idea is to capture carbon from the processes and sell the credits to the international market.
In line with CEBDS' thinking, the businesspeople said that Brazil is fully capable of combining economic development with environmental preservation.
On the 26th, Monday, CEBDS will take place, from 3 pm to 5 pm, register here, the webinar on the Regulatory Framework for the Carbon Market in Brazil. “Carbon will be the new commodity “The global carbon market will soon be global and Brazil has important competitive advantages in this market. We need to organize ourselves now to ensure leadership in the global carbon market,” said Marina Grossi, president of CEBDS. “The regulatory framework for this market must be created by a law with stable, credible and transparent rules and regulations to ensure legal certainty and low transaction costs,” added Marina.
